Bittersweet
by bombalurima
Summary: Takes place right after 'The Boiling Rock'-Mai wonders as to why Ty Lee saved her, and gets an unexpected response. Femslash-Mailee.


It was cold. Her prison uniform itched. The cell smelled funny.

Mai ran these complaints and a hundred others through her mind, thinking about the chill, the hard stone floor beneath her, the quiet, paralyzing numbness that clung to this entire dismal place—anything to take her mind off of him.

Anything to not think about him. Anything to forget Zuko.

It was far easier said than done. Her heart still ached inside her chest, as it had started to the moment she first saw Zuko again.

The adrenaline she had felt coursing through her veins when she had confronted Azula, the pounding love in her heart and the fierce passion she felt for Zuko when she had saved him were all fading, replaced by a dull throb of longing and heartache.

Mai was reminded as to why she had kept her heart locked away for so long a time. It hurt too much to let it out.

Her hair, instead of being pinned up in its usual style, was hanging long and loose, the raven-black silk that Zuko had loved to run his fingers through falling down her back and around her face. The prison guards had removed them when they had swapped her regular clothes for a uniform.

Mai felt completely naked without her knives. She wondered where her uncle was. And she could not, no matter how hard she tried, stop thinking about Zuko.

Ty Lee sat across from her, legs pulled to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, her chin on her knees. She had not spoken a single word since they had been thrown into this new cage, which had been at least a few hours ago.

Mai was surprised to see that, in what gloomy, barely-there light that was present in the cell, that Ty Lee did not look afraid. The knife-thrower was used to seeing her acrobatic friend hide her fear with quick obedience and bright, happy smiles. She had done neither earlier, when she had saved Mai's life.

Ty Lee was always the one reminding Mai to listen to Azula, the one who always insisted that they should do as she said. Mai, oftentimes, begrudgingly listened—as much as she hated to admit it, she was scared of the princess. The act that she had just performed was the ultimate move of betrayal—but it had been done for the best reason in the world that Mai could think of. She did not, however, understand just what the other girl was doing in this filthy cell with her…she had not asked for her to follow her, had not asked for her to take down Azula as she had.

"Ty Lee?" Mai's hoarse voice was a question, oddly tentative. It seemed wrong to break the silence that had fallen over them like shroud, but her curiosity got the best of her. She _had _to know.

The other girl looked over at her without a sound, gray eyes meeting gold ones in a silent invitation to continue talking.

"Why…" Mai was no good with words, and struggled silently for a minute before asking, "Why did you _do _that?"

"Do what, Mai?" Ty Lee inquired, her voice small. So very small.

"_Save _me like that…" Mai demanded, still able to picture the scene perfectly in her mind's eyes. She had faced the princess with defiance, one last faithful senbon in her fingers as she had prepared to, at the very least, go down fighting…when the pink blur that was Ty Lee had appeared out of nowhere, striking the princess in such an intense fashion that it had not just blocked her chi—but it had sent her toppling to the ground, utterly incapable of any movement at all.

Ty Lee merely blinked, as if she had not understood the question.

"You saved me," Mai ran her fingers through her hair in frustration over the matter. "You saved me from _Azula. _I was about _to die."_

"Yes…" Ty Lee did not seem to realize what the problem was. "I couldn't just let you die, Mai."

"Well, yes…but…" Mai's voice trailed off hopelessly for a moment, before she finally took a deep breath and decided to plunge ahead with what she had really been longing to say this whole time.

"You were always so scared of Azula. And…a part…a part of me felt that…you were in love with her."

She had said it, something she had long been suspecting, something she had always wondered about in the back of her mind for months. Now that the words were out, she almost wished she could take them back, but it was too late for that.

Ty Lee's shoulders tensed—but then they relaxed. A small, almost sad smile arose on her face, which baffled the other girl.

"Oh, _Mai…." _Ty Lee shook her head. "You're right about one thing—Azula…Azula _terrifies _me. I've always felt there might be something…something under the surface that we just couldn't see…another side of her, I guess. I don't know if I was right or not…but Mai…"

She had been looking away again, but now, she turned her head once more to meet Mai's eyes.

Before Mai could say, do, or even think anything, Ty Lee closed the distance between them and planted a fierce, near-crushing kiss onto her lips. Mai's eyes flew open, and she involuntary let out a gasp, which her friend saw as the opportunity to deepen the kiss, even just for a moment.

Ty Lee pulled away then, leaving a very flushed, bewildered Mai to attempt to pull her scrambled thoughts together.

Still with that sad, now slightly bitter on her face, Ty Lee curled back up into her miserable ball and whispered, "It was never Azula that I was in love with."

"But…" Mai still found herself slightly incapable of speech, as she attempted to string a sentence together. "But…_Zuko…"_

"It's him, Mai. I know it's always been him for you. But…you saved him because you loved him. You stood up to Azula because you love him. I just followed you. That's what I've always wanted to do."

Ty Lee sounded so calm, so remarkably matter-of-fact and even a little wistful.

Mai did not say anything. She couldn't. Ty Lee herself didn't speak any more after that either and they both turned slightly away from the other, their thoughts racing.

Mai had never felt so helpless and confused once before in her life.

Ty Lee had never felt so bitter and so sweet.

Yet still, all they tasted was one another.


End file.
